Carolyn Howard-Johnson's grandson served two tours in Iraq. Her husband is a retired Army officer who served in the 1960s Berlin call up. She writes poetry, fiction and essays that explore the subjects of war, peace and tolerance. She sees a relationship between the three. This is where she gets to nag and rag about making things better in the US and beyond by the simple means of fostering more acceptance in our hearts for our neighbors -- locally as well as globally.

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Quotation:

"Better than a thousand useless words is one word that gives peace." ~ Buddha

Military Writers Society of America Award

Troop Support Giftbook

About Me

Carolyn Howard-Johnson's first novel, This Is the Place, won eight awards. Her second book, Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered, creative nonfiction, won three. Her chapbook of poetry Tracings, was named to the Compulsive Reader's Ten Best Reads list and was given the Military Writers' Society of America's Silver Award of Excellence. An instructor for UCLA Extension's world-renown Writers' Program, her book The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't is recommended reading for her classes, and was named USA Book News' "Best Professional Book 2004." It is also an Irwin Award winner. Her second book in the How To Do It Frugally series is The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success is also a USA Book News award-winner as well as the winner of the Reader View's Literary Award in the publishing category. She is the recipient of both the California Legislature's Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award and the Glendale American Business Women's Association's Woman of the Year award. Her community's Character and Ethics Committee honored her for promoting tolerance with her writing. She was also named to Pasadena Weekly's list of 14 "San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen." She is a popular speaker and actor. Her website is www.HowToDoItFrugally.com.

Beaufortby Ron Leshem, translated by Evan Fallenberg, Delacorte Press. Called a "heart-breaking, and haunting first novel." About Israeli combat.~~~~Charlie Wilson's War, the book, by George Crile.~~~~My City by the Sea by Gary Carter, a book of poems that includes "Universal Soldier."~~~~For the Good of the Many, by Gary Carter, a military/political thriler.~~~~Tracings, a chapbook of poetry by Carolyn Howard-Johnson that includes "The War Museum at Oslo." Finishing Line Press. Award of excellence from Military Writers' Society of America.~~~~Support Our Troops, a gift book of patriotic sayings by Eric Dinyer. Published by Andrews-McMeel. Foreword by Carolyn Howard-Johnson. Proceeds to Fisher House.~~~Eugene Richards is also the author of War Is Personal, "a series of phtographic and written essays about people--in and out of the military--whose lives have been changed by the war in Iraq." He is using a $50,000 grant for photography from National Geographic to write it.~~~An occasional newsletter from a veteran who says the subject is "usually conservatively political, patriotic or honors our troops. I am try to include an original poetry or commentary commentary.To subscribe send an email to HancockREMOVE@PoetPatriot.com (REMOVE the "REMOVE") with Subscribe in the SUBJECT field.

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Monday, June 2, 2008

Probably most of you who keep up with this blog know about what' happening with the new GI Bill (not as much as should be happening, I fear!) But Time Magazinedid a nice article, "A Brief History Of: The GI Bill," this week that you might find interesting. It's on page 25 of the June 9 issue of that magazine. If nothing more, I hope it will encourage you to write your congress persons because it looks as if it will require more than the usual support to get it past a Bush veto.

By the way, I consider the argument that great educational opportunities for our returning GIs will reduce the number of soldiers re-enlisting fallacious. For one thing, the armed services have a stop-loss program that assures they can keep soldiers who are needed (I know because my grandson was kept beyond what he originally volunteered for.) The other reason that this reasoning doesn't cut the mustard is that good programs for returning GIs encourages more enlistment; it doesn't discourage it. Maybe one of the reasons volunteerism is down is because of all the cuts in programs for our soldiers.

I should also mention that Senator John McCain also opposes this new version of a GI Bill.

This bill doesn't do for this decade's soldiers what the first bill did for our soldiers but it at least would cover their tuition at state universities. I don't see how we can do less for them but apparently Bush and McCain don't see it as I do. Hey, those are just the facts. Hard to believe what's happening politically these days, huh?

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson wrote the foreword for Eric Dinyer's book of patriotic quotations, Support Our Troops, published by Andrews McMeel. Part of the proceeds for the book benefit Fisher House. Her chapbook of poetry won the Military Writers Society of America's award of excellence.

Here's How to Help Our Soldiers--Now

~~The Philadelphia Veterans Multi-Service & Education Center, Inc, 215 923 VETS (or go to http://www.pvmsec.org/). Ed Lowry, 215-8970-5233, will tell you how to help a program in a community where 30% of the homesless are vets.

~~You may send a greeting (think Christmas, get well or just plain good wishes!) to an injured soldier

~~Move-On is helping the USO to provide thousands of phone cards to servicemen and women stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world, so that they can call their friends, family and loved ones this holiday season. Give $15 to buy a phone card for our troops? Click here for information:

~~It's now cheaper to send items to APO and FPO addresses. Order free shipping boxes online. Ask for APO FPO rates at the post office. The boxes will be available online Feb. 20 at http://www.usps.com/supplies, or by calling (800) 610-8734.

~~My soldier in Iraq says that the windshield reflectors many of us use in the summer to protect our dashboards from cracking, our hands from burning on the steering wheel and our bottoms from baking on leather seats are a boon to soldiers suffering Iraqi heat, too. I saw some at the 99 cent store. (-:

~~Get your soldier a bore cleaning kit free of charge with the project Bore Snake. http://www.projectboresnake.com/moreinfo.html. It will save him or her time and assure that their weapons are taken care of. Find guidelines or how to get one on the site.

Overheard . . .

Quotations on Our Military -- Without Comment

~~Reported by the Homelessness Research Institute:Veterans are homeless: Vets represent only 11% of the cvilian adult popularion but 26% of the homeless population. The report asks for screening to learn which soldiers are at risk as they leave the service and for emergency grants for those who actually do fall behind on their rent. Write your congressman for support of this recommendation.

~~From Time Magazine:Nearly 1/2 million veterans were on the streets or in shelters in 2006.

~~From Nancy Gibbs, Time Magazine Essay"Private charity can't replace a public commitment to finish what we start, do do the long, hard, expensive work of making soldiers whole when they come home."

Notes on Tolerance . . .

Tolerance, or the lack of it, is at the root of every conceivable ill that befalls our country and others . . .

~~John McCain in response to a complaint that open borders "will destroy this country. . . " said, ". . . on the larger issue you raise, I believe the people who have come here [legally] from other countries . . . are our greatest strength." `Time Magazine, Dec. 10, 2007, page 33.

~~From Time Magazine:"Unholy Fantasy~The Catholic League called for a boycott of the film The Golden Compass, saying it promotes atheism. The league previously boycotted The Da Vinci Code."

~~At the Casden Institute at the University of Southern California (USC): Sen. Russell D. Feingold (D-WS) noted that embracing strangers or outsiders is a tenet emphasized in the Torah. He urged particular tolerance for American minorities including blacks, Latinos, and Arabs and Muslims.

~~Tammy Faye Messner (Baker) passed away in 2007. She said "I refuse to label . . . . We're all just people made out of the same old dirt, and God didn't make any junk."

~~J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series is a compendium of 4,200 pages about tolerance. Now, after the last has been written, she says, "I did not set out to convert anyone . . . . It's perfectly possible to live a very moral life without a belief in God, and I think it's perfectly possible to live a life peppered with ill-doing and believe in God."

~~"It takes a total shift in perception to realize that you are not in the world, the world is in you." ~ Deepak Chopra

~~"It's about people being two things at once, like Italian Americans or Chinese Americans. He's (Pope Bendict) interested in that idea of coexistence." ~ Raphaela Schmid, Becket Fund for Religious Liberty (Time, April 14, 2008)